"Jennifer Roberson - CotC 4 - The House of Homana" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Jennifer)

torture I would wish on no man, not even to save myself.

My father was young, too young, when he received his
Ur, and then he bonded with two: Taj and Lom, falcon
and wolf. lan was fifteen when he formed his bond with
Tasha. At ten. / hoped I would be as my father and
receive my Ur early. At thirteen and fourteen I hoped I
would at least be younger than lan, if I could not mimic
my father. At fifteen and sixteen I prayed to all the gods
I could to send me my lir as soon as possible, period, so I
could know myself a man and a warrior of the dan. At
seventeen, I began to dread it would never happen,
never at all; that T would live out my life a lirless Cheysuli,
only half a man, denied all the magic of my race.

And now, at eighteen, I knew those fears for truth.

lan still knelt by the king stag. TashaтАФlean, lovely,
lissome TashaтАФflowed across the clearing to her Ur and
rubbed her head against one bare arm. Automatically
lan supped that arm around her, caressing sleek feline


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head and tugging affectionately at tufted ears. Tasha
purred more loudly than ever, and I saw the distracted
smile on lan's face as he responded to the mountain cat's
affection. A warrior in communion with his Ur is much
like a man in perfect union with a woman; another man,
shut out of either relationship, is doubly cursed . . . and
doubly lonely.

I turned away abruptly, knowing again the familiar
7

uprush of pain, and bent to recover my bow. The arrow
was broken; Tasha's mock attack had caused me to fall
on it. A sore hip told me I had also rolled across the
bow. But at least the soreness allowed me to think of
things other than my brother and his lir.

I have never been a sullen man, or even one much
given to melancholy. Growing up a prince and heir to the
throne of Homana was more than enough for most;

would have been more than enough for me, were I not
Cheysuli-born. But UriessnessтАФand the knowledge I would
remain soтАФhad altered my life. Nothing would change it,